Many couples will take a romantic break to Paris in the coming month to soak up a little festive spirit in the city of romance.

In Montmartre, the old centre of risqué Parisian bohemia, there’s a charming little monument to romance, tucked away in a small garden. It’s all about saying those three little words; ‘I love you’.

The Mur des je t’aime, is a forty metre square wall made up of 612 enamelled lava tiles, dedicated to saying the phrase over a 1000 times in 311 different languages.

From Afrikaans to Xaracuu, the language of Nouvelle Caledonia, that’s a lot of ways of saying, and from èk-èt -you- lif to na-na-ra-ro, each phrase is in a different handwriting, almost always of the native speaker.

In 1992 author and composer Frédéric Baron started collecting these written ‘I love yous’. Five years later he met calligrapher and artist Claire Kito, who thought it would make a great project.

The mural was opened in 1999 after painstaking work arranging each ‘I Love You’ into a single image, before transferring them onto the separate 21 x 30 cm tiles.

The range of languages is amazing; there’s six Arabic versions of ‘I love you’ alone, two different Armenian dialects, different intonations for character languages such as Cantonese and much more.

Baron first played piano in bars and cafes around Montmartre, so thought it would be great set up the mural here.

The wall has attracted a lot of media interest over the years, but can often be pleasingly tourist free as they get waylaid by the nearby Moulin Rouge.

The wall is in Buttes Montmartre, Place des Abbesses, in Place Jehan Rictus. The closest Metro station is Abbesses, and admission is free.

Tomas Mowlam

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Image Credit: inocuo

Tags: France, P&O Ferries by tmowlam
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As the weather starts to get really cold, embrace the festive chill with a visit to Bruges and the Ijs Sculpturen Festival writes Tomas Mowlam.

The festival brings amazing ice and snow sculptures each year to the centre of town, and this year’s theme is the film Ice Age 3.

Follow the adventures of Sid the Sloth, mammoths Manny and Ellie, sabre-tooth tiger Diego, and Buck the swashbuckling one-eyed weasel and all the other cheeky critters, through a magical world of ice, snow and light, that kids will love.

The sculptures are rendered in blocks of snow and ice inside a massive tent chilled to -6°C.

The artists come from China, Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the Ukraine, The Czech Republic, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

They use chainsaws, drills, hammers and chisels to cut, shape, carve and polish over 300 tonnes of ice and 400 tonnes of snow into the entire world of Ice Age. Blocks of ice can even be ‘welded’ by using an iron to melt the surfaces together.

The level of detail that goes into organising the festival is amazing, for example the forklift trucks used to move the blocks run on gas, so that no soot from exhausts can discolour the ice.

The ice used to be shipped in from Swedish Lapland, but the artists now work on ice made in West Flanders, in Belgium, in special water tanks that mean no air bubbles can form so each ice block is solid and crystal clear.

The blocks of snow, in fact finely ground ice, are packed down inside wooden moulds for three days, before being worked on.

Based in central Bruges at Buiten Boninvest, it’s just five minutes from the famous Christmas market and ice rink.

It is €13 for adults, €11 for concessions, €9 for kids and under fours get in free.

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Image Credit: icesclupture.be

Tags: Belgium, P&O Ferries, Uncategorized by tmowlam
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Calais and the surrounding countryside is often seen as a place to go through and not stay, but if you look past the declining industry and flat farmland, there is a wealth of beautiful rural villages and great food, writes Tomas Mowlam.

The problem is that these are tricky to find, but going local will allow you to find the best spots in and around Calais.

The Pas de Calais tourist board has now created a network of “greeters”, modelled on the New York “Big Apple Greeters”, who volunteer to show curious tourists round their own little corner of the countryside.

In the 1990s New York residents were recruited to show tourists that the city wasn’t all gun crime and muggings, likewise Calais residents are determined to show that there’s more to this underrated corner of France.

“They welcome visitors to talk about the area where they live,” says the tourist board, “and about themes close to their hearts: nature, local history, particular professions, traditions.”

Calais has some great countryside and some even better food, so pick the right guides, and you can experience wonderful country walks, sample tangy apple ciders, rich cheeses and traditionally baked bread.

Basically you can find all the best the area has to offer with local knowledge. It’s just a stones throw from England, and ferry trips are cheap.

“Unlike professional guides they do not welcome groups, but only individuals [maximum 6 people] on request, free of charge.

“The principle of the association is based on meeting the inhabitants and sharing their passions.”

Check out the Pas de Calais tourist board website, pas-de-calais.com, or the greeters own website, greeters62.com, for more information. The latter site is in French so you will have to use a translate tool.

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Image Credit: cwbuecheler

Tags: France, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by tmowlam
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The Leuven International Short Film Festival is one of the most exciting film festivals in Europe.

It has competitions for live action and animated short films, as well as stunning music videos, and brings together directors from all over the world. The categories are all judged by expert European directors, some of whom are Oscar nominated.

It’s the 15th anniversary of the festival so expect even more of a party atmosphere, especially on the final night of 5th December. Over the years it has been responsible for really encouraging the growth of Flemish film, but also features a wide array of English short films and others from all over Europe.

It’s not all existentialism on offer as well, check out the US short Terry Tate: Office Linebacker, where “retired NFL Linebacker, ‘Terrible’ Terry Tate enforces the office rules at the Felcher and Sons’ headquarters the only way he knows how: with bone-crushing tackles and hard-core trash-talk.”

It’s strange, but definitely hilarious.

There’s lot for kids to see as well with dedicated Shorts for Kids sections with contributions from as far away as Israel and Paraguay, telling enchanting stories in all forms of animation and stop motion.

Adults and kids alike will love the UK entry of Simon’s Cat, the series about the always hungry cat, and his efforts this time to catch a housefly no matter how much damage he causes.

The quirky 2D black and white animations by Simon Tofield have become a YouTube sensation, with some of the clips racking up over 12 million views.

Due to the length of the entries many are available to watch Youtube, and the festival offers a compilation of the best highlights.

It’s held in the town of Leuven, 30km east of Brussels easily accessible by rail or car from the Zeebrugge P&O ferry port, in the beautiful arts centre STUK, Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven.

A ticket only costs you €6, if you have a STUK-card it’s only €4.50 or you can get a festival pass for €27, which gets you six tickets.

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Image Credit: Tomàs Fano

Tags: Belgium, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by tmowlam
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